This invention relates generally to an arrangement for maintaining a spare tire under the floor pan of a automobile and more particularly to such an arrangement which will stow spare tires of various thickness.
An example of a prior art, vehicle spare wheel carrier is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,428,513 issued Jan. 31, 1984 to Delmastro. The '212 patent discloses a spare wheel carrier which includes a spare wheel support member pair of mounting brackets adjacent one end thereof having L-shaped slots. Pivots mounted on the vehicle engage the ends of either legs of the slots to locate the support member different distances from the floor of the vehicle so as to support wheels of different thicknesses.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,900 issued Jan. 3, 1984 to Sugimoto et al. discloses a tire-storage arrangement comprising a tire-storage pan portion forming part of the floor panel structure of the vehicle body and downwardly sunk from the upper face of the floor panel structure. The tire-storage pan portion has a bottom wall and a side wall formed with a concavity which is open upwardly and which is surrounded by the side wall, the tire-storage pan portion internally sized to be suitable for having regular-sized spare tire snugly received on the inner surface of the side wall at least at a plurality of points of the outer perimeter of the tread portion of the tire. A receptacle is externally sized to fit the inner surface of the side wall of the tire storage pan portion, the receptacle member having an upper face located above the upper face of the bottom wall of the tire-storage pan portion at a level equal to the difference between the depth of the concavity in the tire-storage pan portion and the width of a temporary use spare tire. Clamping means are provided for having a temporary-use spare tire securely yet detachable attached to the upper face of the receptacle member.